Chip designer Mediatek gets Taiwan nod to export goods to ZTE

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwanese chip designer Mediatek Inc has received an export permit from the government to sell components to ZTE Corp, a Chinese telecoms equipment maker subjected to restrictions in the United States.

FILE PHOTO: MediaTek chips are seen on a development board at the MediaTek booth during the 2015 Computex exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, June 3, 2015. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang/File Photo

The U.S. government last month banned American firms from selling to ZTE for seven years, saying the company had failed to comply with a settlement related to ZTE shipping U.S.-made goods to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Following the U.S. ban, Taiwan had instructed local firms wanting to ship goods to ZTE to apply for permission.

Mediatek confirmed to Reuters on Monday that it had received the export permit last week to ship products to ZTE.

An official with Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade said the government had approved a permit for Mediatek, and that it had received applications from “several” other tech firms.

“We fully understand high-tech factories’ characteristic of fast-paced shipments of goods, we won’t create obstacles for the pace of their exports,” the foreign trade official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.

A ZTE smart phone is pictured in this illustration taken April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/Illustration

“Taiwan’s government has its own control mechanisms, which is independent of the way the U.S. looks at it in a given situation,” the official said. “The mechanism will consider America and other advanced countries’ controls.”

He said the permit that Taiwan had issued, or was looking to issue, would give domestic companies permission to proceed with exports to firms on the government’s watch list.

He did not give names of the other companies that had applied for permission, but said chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp was not one of them.

Shipments to ZTE by Nanya Tech will be hurt in the short term given the government’s procedure, local media has reported.

A Nanya Tech spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on Monday.